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Sunday, January 3, 2010

Winter Green Smoothie

This is one of the green smoothies we make in the winter. It is chock full of healing dark leafy greens, cabbage, fruit, and cranberries! Adding the tart green apples and tart cranberries make it palatable without lemon juice.

This smoothie is ideal if you are following The Elimination Diet. I've been enjoying it all day today! I think my toddler boys each drank 2 cups this morning. I couldn't pour it fast enough!

We own and use a Vitamix 5000 series for making our smoothies. If you don't have a high-powered blender then you'll want to make sure your blade is very sharp. You'll also want to half the recipe below.

Winter Green Smoothie

When making smoothies without lemon you need to consume them the day they are made, otherwise the fruit will begin to oxidize. Lemon juice does such a great job of preserving them. Try adding in frozen blueberries or cherries, though your smoothie won't be green anymore (and may not look very appetizing). Frozen peaches work great too. The key to a great tasting smoothie is to use tart Granny Smith apples and a handful of fresh or frozen cranberries. You can follow my recipe below or get creative with what you have on hand.

2 apples, cored and cut into large chunks

2 pears, cored and cut into large chunks

handful of fresh or frozen cranberries

1 to 2-inch piece of fresh ginger

2 cups of water

6 to 7 large kale leaves

4 to 5 large collard greens

large chunk of green cabbage (about 1 to 2 cups chopped)

handful of fresh parsley

Place apples, pears, cranberries, ginger, and water into a high-powered blender and blend until smooth. Stuff in the greens and blend again until smooth. Add more water for a thinner smoothie.

Store in a glass jar in the fridge for up to a day.Source: www.NourishingMeals.com

If you are on the 2-day Detox, then this smoothie is ideal. Be sure to keep drinking plenty of filtered water throughout the day. Shoot for 100 ounces to help with the detox aspect of this diet.

We have found that drinking healing root teas during this phase supports the liver. The liver works overtime to metabolize toxins that are released into the bloodstream during a fast or a detox. I made one last night from burdock root, dandelion root, licorice root, ginger, peppermint, and nettles. You can refer to the tea recipes in our cookbook or use the one below.

29 comments:

Ali, can I come to your house for a juice cleanse? This looks great! Thanks for the post - I'm totally forwarding this one to my parents. I just got them to clear all the HFCS from their house (YES!) and they are starting a whole foods diet conversion, so this will be perfeect for them. Thanks for sharing! :) -Kim

The green apple looks like a great addition to the smoothie. I am on day 6 of the elimination diet and have tried your green apple salad dressing and the sunflower seed burgers from your book. Both are delicious. Today we had Medjool dates stuffed with sunflower butter that was mixed with Agave and topped the dates with Chia seeds for dessert at dinner. Keep up the great work Tom and Ali, your comments and recipes are very inspiring! Wendy

I love your smoothies and have been drinking one every day for months. I've been adding ginger and lemon, sometimes cabbage, kale, romaine, spinach, chard, parsley. Really anything that is fresh when I do my shopping.

I notice that I have more energy and need less coffee. (Always a bonus!) I do find that I need to drink much more water, but that's a good thing too. A smoothie a day has helped regulate my digestive system and I'm so grateful for this!!

I have to agree with Kim. It would be fun to come to your house for a group cleanse. Sort of like a Canyon Ranch spa thing, you know?

I haven't even ventured out of the house yet to buy the stuff to make the smoothies. Even staying in, my tootsies have never warmed up today. Got the scratchy throat and sniffles so I have been doing the herbal tea ... throatcoat in my case ... slippery elm, licorice root, and all that. It helps.

dear alii forgot to ask you abt the pears... when u do the green smoothies. i find the pears are never ready to use when i go out to buy some. they need to go into the brown paperbag to ripen faster. so what do you do without any ripe pears? just more apples? pears do add alot of flavor to the smoothies, i find...

Hi Ali,I did the 28 day elimination this summer and continued on eating this way. I love it! However, over the holidays...things got out of control and am beginning again today, as well. How fun to have you posting recipes and elimination diet specific posts. I'm really excited!

I have a question: I got a new juicer for christmas and have been making the green smoothies as juice. Do you see a problem with that for the fasting portion??

I am starting this today and have been sipping at my winter green smoothie. It's really tasty! I added a bit of mint as well and purple cabbage instead of green - hope that's okay. I have a question. In the book (which I LOVE!), you mention that potatoes are not recommended for phase one, yet yams are mentioned in the menu ideas. Are yams not considered potatoes, then? I love yams and sweet potatoes, but wasn't sure I could have them. Thanks, Jill

Wendy - Thanks for the great dessert idea. Sunflower butter in medjool dates with chia seeds - genius. I'll have to give it a try. :)

Amy - Yay! for green smoothies and great health, thanks for sharing! :)

Shirley - I am sure you will enjoy the addition of collards to your smoothies. Hope you feel better soon! :)

Laura - Oh wonderful, I'm glad you'll be doing this again with us! Yes use all apples if you don't have any ripe pears or try adding in some frozen peaches or plums. I'm just constantly buying pears so we always have some that are ripe and some that are in the process of ripening. :)

jennifer - I'm happy that you'll be joining us too, again! I have so many new elimination diet recipes to post, it is a matter of getting a photo before the food is gone. ;-) As far as juicing vs. making smoothies....the fiber from the plants in the smoothies is critical to the gut cleansing during the 1st 2 days and on. Tom recommends smoothie/water/herbal teas only all day. I am sure if you felt it was right to add in raw juice occasionally it would be fine.

Jill - Yum, your smoothie variation sounds great, thanks for sharing. Yams/sweet potatoes are in a different family than potatoes. Potatoes/peppers/tomatoes/eggplant are in the nightshade family which can cause issues in some individuals. So yes, yams and sweet potatoes are great for phase 1.

Hey Ali, I am finally starting today-I am sure I am not the only one as the town was-KALE FREE. I found some green kale at Freddy's yesterday and the cashier said "I have been selling Kale all day!" I told her to check your blog ;)PEARS-I like to buy a case or two of pears in the fall when the price is good and a case has an additional discount. I ripen them and the ones that don't get eaten immediately; I wash, core and freeze. That way I have lots of pears for those Jan, Feb March smoothies.CLEANSING-I found wearing extra layers of clothing really helps when I am cleansing too. Also, I liked reading my journal from last year-it was encouraging to read how great I felt :] RETREAT-I was actually wanting to put together a meditation retreat soon, and I wanted healthy whole food to be a part of that! Maybe that is our next thing!THANKS Ali-it will be fun to do this together :]

Hi Ali, I have had your book for a couple of months now and LOVE it. We are more of a Nourishing Tradition's type family, but are always looking to improve in the other areas. I have nine children, some with various symptoms that we would like to address with diet. One daughter has horrible excema, a couple with borderline excema, some digestion/elimination problems. I personally have severe adrenal fatigue that is being treated by a 'natural doctor' and have seen improvement in the last couple of months.

So, we want to try the elimination diet. Should I just put the whole family on it? All are game. Is there enough protein? We are used to eating more and I do have a bunch of growing young men ;-)

Also, what do I look for in the few who don't really have obvious symptoms, like skin conditions?

I'm sorry for all the questions, this is a huge undertaking for me/us, but feel it is necessary, especially for my little girl with the skin problems. WE have eliminated wheat, then dairy and didn't see any change, really. Maybe I should have taken them out together, which is why I like this idea of just going down to nothing, even if it is hard. It seems easier in the long run.

I was wondering why do we make smoothies out of these foods, why can't I just eat them?

I must admit, I don't really like green smoothies. I've tried all different kinds, I started out with mostly fruit and added some not too harsh greens and I still don't like it.I like fruit smoothies. You know I've never tried a smoothie with just greens, I don't know it I'd like that or not, but mixing the fruit with the greens is just not for my taste buds.I've been having lower GI troubles for over 2 months, I've been to doctors, and I've had many tests but no one can find anything wrong.

I do have a gluten intolerance (possible Celiac's disease, but I stopped eating gluten before they thought of testing me).

I've decided to do an elimination diet to find out if there is something else in my diet that is causing this upset. (I've also gained about 25 pounds since this started, I think that's just weird.)

I'm ordering your book today, I'm sorry if I'm asking questions that are covered in it.

I've made several green smoothies now, including one Tom's Medicine Cabinet Smoothie, my one complaint is that my smoothies turn out with a thick froth on top. What am I potentially doing to bring this about? Any tips to what I can do to eliminate the thick froth? ~Heather

Yummy! I regularly use those ingredients for my morning smoothie, along with some chard, parsley and lately have been adding spirulina, flax and hemp seeds and brewers yeast (although I'm not loving the flavor with the brewers yeast so am thinking of leaving that out.)

I bought us a CIA Vitamix recently so we can really mix it up a bit! So awesome!

Thank you, this is what I have been needing!! I will give this a try, it looks very refreshing and nourishing as well as detoxing! I have made green smoothies in my Vita Mix before and my kids know they can taste delicious even if they are green.

I will be checking out your Elimination diet link as well, I've been feeling so sluggish after all the junk from Thanksgiving :)

I am a big fan of your book and blog and i do not have a vita mix blender (I someday hope to!!), but I juice green drinks everyday in my juicer, and have recently discovered how good pears are in the mix. What are your feelings on Juicing? I do not see any recipes in your book or blog on separating the insoluble fiber out of the drink. If you have the time would you mind giving me your thoughts.

I am on phase one of the elimination diet and had a random question about saving smoothies. Most of the servings in the book serve 2-3 and I am the only one in my house doing the cleanse. So I've been saving any left over smoothie in my fridge is that okay?

Also yeah is salmon allowed in phase one. I was under the impression that no other protein other than beans, grains and lentils were allowed.

Last but not least, I just finish cooking my first batch of adzuki beans and followed the instructions in your book to a tea, however they did not turn out. They dried up before the hour. Tips?

Brenda- It is fine to save leftover smoothies in the fridge stored in a glass jar. I wouldn't store them anymore than 2 days though. Yes, we updated the diet to allow salmon for those who felt that they really needed an animal protein source during the diet. As for the adzuki beans, even following directions to a "T" sometimes doesn't lead to a perfect recipe. Sounds like your batch ran out of water before they were cooked. Next time just add more water if you notice it getting low.

My 17 year old daughter and I started the elimination diet today. We are going to try really hard to stick to it and the two day green smoothies! We made the smoothies exactly as written and they are pretty good. We are going to try adding some peaches for a fruitier taste.

Thanks for the recipe Ali! Having just become the proud owner of a Vitamix last week I really appreciate it. Today I had a smoothie similar to what you have posted, green cabbage, apple, fennel, kale, and parsley. It was a beautiful green like yours. But last week I tried apple, spinach, cucumber, and pomegranate and it turned out a muddy brown. It still tasted great but I had to close my eyes to drink it! I am looking for green smoothie recipes that LOOK and taste good so thank you for posting!!

Thanks for this delicious smoothie, Ali & Tom! My husband, who is an adventurous eater but not always a fan of the smoothies I concoct on my own, took a drink and gave his "Mmmmmm!" approval. I'm looking forward to drinking this - or a variation of it - all winter long!

I love the green smoothie recipes, but I'm still working with an ordinary blender. Today I tried using my Cuisinart food processor. It left very tiny pieces of kale and cranberry but it also incorporated a great deal of air into the mixture. Is this air supposed to be part of the smoothie? How small does the Vitamix chop up greens? Are they completely pulverised or in tiny pieces? I guess what I am really asking is, how much of a smoothie is liquid and how much is pulp? Thanks for any help or suggestions! --Northern Foodie

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This blog was created by Ali and Tom of Whole Life Nutrition. We offer healthy whole foods recipes that happen to be gluten-free. Having 5 children, our focus tends to revolve around raising healthy kids. We also specialize in elimination diets, gluten sensitivity, and celiac disease.